Privacy

"You know, Castle, I've seen your apartment about a million times by now, but is it still necessary for me to wear a blindfold anyway? I mean, it's only been a few days since Christmas and the New Year isn't coming for a few more, so what's the special occasion?" Kate mentioned, while still being very impatient.

"There's no occasion, Beckett, I just thought after having such a busy day at the Precinct, the two of us, and especially you, should get to relax for the night, so that's why I arranged a special surprises, but you don't need to worry, because you're going to love it." Richard replied.

"Well then, Castle, I'm going to be sure about that once I know exactly what it is, but wait. . . what about Martha and Alexis, do they know or even have anything to do with these surprises?" Kate asked, already wondering if his family would be involved, since they were going inside his apartment.

"Tonight, my mother is already dressed up and she's out on a date, with your father, of course, while Alexis will be hanging out with her friends at Columbia, so it will be just you and me, but why are you asking? Did you really want them to be around while we're having our date?" Richard questioned.

"No," Kate responded, while shaking her head. "I was just interested, since this date would be happening in your home, I only wanted to be sure, so anyway, when can I take off this blindfold, because I don't want to complain or anything, but it's been getting quite itchy over my eyelids." Kate mentioned.

"Don't worry, I'll take it off for you, and you're right, Beckett, it wasn't really necessary for you to have it on, I'm sorry, but you still have to keep your eyes closed." Richard responded, while pulling off the blindfold. "Now I don't have to use my hands to cover your eyes, do I?" Richard asked.

"No, Castle, I can perfectly keep my eyes closed without your help, but still, thank you for suggesting, now are we finally in your apartment, because I wouldn't mind if you could lead me to where I'm supposed to go. You don't want this date to be ruined with me tripping and hurting myself, right?" Kate mentioned.

"I agree, so I'm going to have my hands on your shoulders the whole time, but can you also just keep both of your arms at each side of your body, since it wouldn't be so great for you to catch on fire either, and I'm not going to say anything more than that, or else I'll completely ruin the surprise."

Kate was about to give a reply back to what her boyfriend had just said when she started to smell the scent of candles, which she realized, were the same kind of candles that she lit up whenever she was going to take a nice, warm and relaxing bath back in her apartment.

She could also closely hear her shoes touching on the floor what seemed to be petals of a certain flower, which were most likely roses, since that was usually the flower which was always used for a romantic setting, and if Castle's home was filled with candles and flowers, then that would mean. . .

"Alright, Beckett! You can finally open your eyes now!" Richard gleefully shouted, and with hearing those words, Kate opened her eyes to see that the apartment was bedecked with none other than candles and rose petals on the floor, and that's when she started to get very scared and anxious.

"Wow, Castle, everything looks beautiful. You really did a great job! I just have another question to ask. What exactly is the plan for this date, and what I mean by that is, what's going to happen, like are we going to have a romantic dinner, because if you must know, I am hungry, by the way." Kate mentioned.

"Yes, I have prepared a fancy dinner, which will be included in our date for tonight, but first, there's something very important that I've wanted to ask you for quite some time." Richard said, before using one of his hands to reach down his left pants pocket and grab something out of it.

What he pulled out was a small velvet-covered box, and Kate couldn't believe what she was seeing. Castle was actually going to ask her to marry him, even though they had only been together as a couple for a few months, and they've never had a discussion about marriage at least one time.

"Wait a minute, Castle, before you just go ahead and ask me this question, I really want to know this, did you even bother to stop and think about how I might be feeling? Did you even consider that we'd be taking such a huge step in our relationship, especially when you've been married twice?" Kate asked.

"Of course, I did both of those things, and what does my previous marriages have to do with any of this? All I was going to do was give you a nice gift, so what happens to be the problem with me doing that?" Richard replied, while starting to wonder where his girlfriend's anger was even coming from.

"I'll tell you what's the problem! No matter how shiny and sparkly your so-called gift is, it will happen to make a huge impact with our future, at least, if you want to have a future that includes a brand new marriage that likely won't last as long as your first or even your second for that matter!" Kate replied.

"Hold on, Beckett, you thought that I was going to propose?" Richard responded, while he was finally realizing why she had suddenly gotten so upset with him. "It wasn't an engagement ring that I bought for you, it was only going to be earrings, and if you don't believe me, then here, take a look." Richard said.

He slowly handed her the velvet-covered box, and when Beckett opened it up, she was both relieved and stunned to see two gorgeous diamond earrings, and that's when she also realized that Richard was right all along about the gift not being an engagement ring, and began to feel horrible about jumping to conclusions.

"Oh, Castle, they look. . ." Kate began to speak, but stopped when she somehow couldn't find the right word to describe the jewelry right in front of her eyes, and Richard knew it was usually a rare occasion whenever that happened, so he decided to go ahead and use one of the many words he said to describe her.

"Extraordinary," Richard said, finishing the sentence for her, with a smile on his face, and Kate looked up from staring at the earrings to smile back at him, and Kate easily remembered that was the exact same word Richard used in the dedication for one of his books, Heat Wave, which was three years ago.

"If I didn't say it before, then now would be a good time to apologize for not getting you anything for Christmas, it's just that I didn't want to break the promise we made about no presents, with the first year being too stressful, because I thought that you would still be upset, no matter what it is that I'd given you." Richard added.

"I believe that I should owe you an apology too, especially because I didn't get you anything either, but I was just so focused on the case, and then rushing over to come here and see you on Christmas that I didn't really take any time to stop and think about what to get for you, and that's not the only thing that I should be sorry for, and it's blowing up on you about the gift before I even saw it." Kate explained.

"Don't worry about it, and besides, I would've thought the same thing if I were you, and I know that this is probably going to sound quite cheesy, even if it's coming from a world famous best-selling author, but sometimes, the absolute best gift that any man could receive is a woman's love in return." Richard responded.

"You know, Castle, that actually doesn't sound cheesy at all, even though it's coming from you." Kate said, before taking both of the earrings from the box and putting them on. "So now that we've put all of that behind us, could we get back to the date that you've planned out for us?" She asked.

"Yes, Beckett, we can," Richard said, before coming forward, and giving her a kiss on the lips, then leading her to one of the chairs of the dinner table, and kindly pulled out the chair for her to sit, and he made a sigh of relief with knowing that he and Kate could finally begin to enjoy the privacy that they had for the night.

Fin